The Present Disclosure relates, generally, to a connector, and, more particularly, to a connector in which a first terminal member of a plate-like terminal engaging a protruding terminal generates spring force towards the center of the connector in the lateral direction and applies pressure to the protruding terminal such that there is no possibility of adjacent plate-like terminals contacting each other even when the plate-like terminals have a narrow pitch; such that stable contact can be maintained between protruding terminals and plate-like terminals; and such that brief interruptions can be reliably prevented.
In electronic devices, there is an increasing demand for more compact and more integrated connectors to keep pace with the miniaturization and improved performance of these devices and their components. Conventional connectors have been proposed in which a plurality of conductive patterns are formed on an insulating film, and the end portions of these conductive patterns are connected to another board. An example of such a connector is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 2007-114710, the content of which is incorporated by reference in its entirety herein.
FIG. 10 illustrates a top view of a conventional connector. In FIG. 10, 911 is a female-side base serving as the base of a female connector, mounted on the surface of a circuit board (not shown). A terminal receiving opening 954 is formed in the female-side base 911 and passes through to both surfaces of the female-side base 911. A plurality of female-side electrode patterns 951 are arranged in the lateral direction at a predetermined interval inside the terminal receiving opening 954.
Each female-side electrode pattern 951 has a tail portion 958 extending towards the outside of the female-side base 911, and a tail portion 958 is connected electrically to each conductive trace in an electric circuit formed on the surface of the circuit board. Also, each female-side electrode pattern 951 has an inner opening 954a and an arm portion 953 defining the perimeter of the inner opening 954a. The inner opening 954a has a narrow portion and a wide portion formed near both ends of the narrow portion.
In the initial stage of the mating operation, the male connector (not shown) is moved towards the female connector in the thickness direction of the female connector (perpendicular to the surface of the Figure), and the connectors are mated. At this time, a bump-like male-side electrode protrusion (not shown) which protrudes from the surface of the male connector is inserted into a wide portion of the inner opening 954a. Next, when the male connector is moved relative to the female connector in the vertical direction in the drawing, the male-side electrode protrusion moves into the narrow portion. This completes the mating of the male connector and the female connector.
In this instance, the male-side electrode protrusion has a diameter greater than the width of the narrow portion, but somewhat smaller than the inner diameter of the wide portion. Therefore, in the initial stage of the mating operation for the male connector and the female connector, the male-side electrode protrusion is smoothly inserted into the inner opening 954a of the female-side electrode pattern 951. When the male-side electrode protrusion moves into the narrow portion, the space in the arm portion 953 is pushed apart by the male-side electrode protrusion, and the male-side electrode protrusion is pinched from both sides by the arm portion 953. Therefore, when the mating of the male connector and the female connector is completed, the male-side electrode protrusion and the female-side electrode pattern 951 reliably contact each other and establish an electrical connection.
FIG. 11 is a perspective view of another conventional connector, in which FIG. 11(a) shows the male connector 1001 and FIG. 11(b) shows the female connector 1101. In FIG. 11(a), 1001 is a male connector mounted on the surface of a board (not shown). The male connector 1001 has protruding terminals 1051 and reinforcing brackets 1056. The tail portions 1058 of the protruding terminals 1051 are connected by solder to a circuit on the board (not shown), and the reinforcing brackets 1056 are fixed by solder to the surface of the board. In FIG. 11(b), 1101 is a female connector mounted on the surface of a board (not shown). The connector 1101 has resilient terminals 1151 and reinforcing brackets 1156. The tail portions 1158 of the resilient terminals 1151 are connected by solder to a circuit on the board (not shown), and the reinforcing brackets 1156 are fixed by solder to the surface of the board. Also, the spring force of the resilient terminals 1151 is biased to one side in the lateral direction of the female connector 1101 (upward and to the right in FIG. 11(b)). Therefore, when the mating of the male connector and the female connector is completed, the resilient terminals bias the protruding terminals to one side to reliably establish contact and an electrical connection.
However, it has been difficult to increase the electrode arrangement density as conventional connectors have become more compact and dense. Because the arm portion 953 of the female-side electrode pattern 951 is widened in the lateral direction by a male-side electrode protrusion, there is a possibility that arm portions 953 of adjacent female-side electrode patterns 951 will contact each other when the pitch or lateral interval between female-side electrode patterns 951 is reduced. Because the positions of the wide portions and narrow portion of the inner openings 954a of adjacent female-side electrode patterns 951 are staggered in the vertical direction in a conventional connector, there is also a possibility that contact arm portions 953 will contact each other. Here, the positioning of the female-side electrode patterns 951 and male-side electrode protrusions is limited to a so-called zigzag pattern, which reduces the degree of freedom with respect to terminal placement.
In other conventional connectors, when the positioning of the protruding terminals 1051 is different in the lateral direction of the female connector 1101, spring force is not applied equally to all of the protruding terminals 1051. Instead, strong spring force is applied to some of the protruding terminals 1051, and force is transmitted to the solder connecting the circuit board and the tail portions 1058 which causes cracking of the solder. Similarly, when high stress occurs in the tail portions 1158 and reinforcing brackets 1156 of some of the resilient terminals 1151, cracking occurs in the solder connecting them to the board. Thus, connection reliability decreases when solder cracking occurs.